A Fallen Warrior
by Elohim.Aelf
Summary: Set in Season 5. Castiel and Dean are ambushed by a group of angels trying to kill Castiel, who is cut off from Heaven and joined the Winchesters. I am in no way affiliated with CW writers, crew and publishers. So, I am brand new to fanfics, hope it doesnt suck too bad; feedback is welcomed. COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

**Set in Season 5. Castiel and Dean are ambushed by a group of angels trying to kill Castiel, who is cut off from Heaven and joined the Winchesters. I am in no way affiliated with CW writers, crew and publishers. So, I am brand new to fanfics, hope it doesnt suck too bad; feedback is welcomed. **

Dean and Castiel stood back to back in the center of the attacking angels. Both were brandishing gleaming swords made of angelic metal. Dean breathed hard, adrenaline rushing through his body as he took in the eerily calm faces of the approaching heavenly host. Castiel's face was as always, stoic and blank, as he reversed his grip on his weapon.

"Are you ready for this Dean?" asked Cas, as the angels began to close in around them.

"Probably not, but it doesn't look like these winged monkeys are gonna wait for me."growled Dean.

With one last look into Dean's emerald green eyes, Castiel launched himself at their attackers. He took down the first one with a quick, decapitating flick of his sword and landed on the ground in a crouch; he may not be a full angel anymore, but his battle skill and agility had not been lost.

Watching Castiel make the first kill, Dean threw himself at the closest angel with a loud battle cry. The female angel he now confronted was staring at him with odd fascination, her own sword hanging limp at her side. Dean stopped in mid-swing and stared back.

Pushing aside his confusion, he slapped on a cocky smile, "I bet you don't have anyone as great looking as me in heaven, huh baby?"

This snarky comment was followed by a wink that the angel laughed away, "No, I was just wondering how such a beautiful angel as Michael has such a scrawny vessel. But hey, I guess miracles are part of heaven's repertoire."

Dean took in an exaggerated breath, "Ouch, I didn't know angels could be so mean." Then he gripped his sword and stabbed the angel through the heart, her eyes glowing as her angelic nature was killed.

While trying to shove his first kill off of his knife, Dean heard Castiel shout something from behind him. Leaving the sword still stuck in the dead angel, Dean spun around and found himself face to face with Ithuliel, the new commander of Castiel's old garrison. Dean clenched his fists and instinctively punched the angel in the face, recoiling as his hand throbbed as if he had punched iron.

Ithuliel in turn, punched Dean and sent him sprawling to the floor, blood flowing from his now-broken nose. Scrabbling backwards, Dean tried to pull his sword from the body of the first angel, cursing as it wouldn't budge.

"Cas!" Dean panicked as Ithuliel stalked closer to him, lifting his sword above his head. But Castiel was busy fighting off the rest of their attackers, and Dean was left alone, cradling his broken wrist in his hand and backing up against a wall. The commander swung his sword down towards the helpless Dean with all of his force.

Moving at just the right moment, the sword missed his heart, but continued its arc downward and opened a large gash in Dean's thigh. He screamed as agony shot through his whole body and blood gushed from the wound. Dean clenched his teeth against another shout and fell, barely conscious, to the floor. He looked up through his fluttering eyelids and saw Ithuliel laughing as the angel threw his sword to the side.

"You meat puppets have always disgusted me," the angel's low voice grated against Dean's ears, "But you are useful for one thing, a source of entertainment." With the final comment, he kicked Dean in the ribs, producing another scream from the poor hunter.

Ithuliel continued to beat him as his screams died to whimpers. Dean's ribs were pulverized and he found it harder and harder to breathe. Just as he was going to pass out, Dean saw Castiel grapple with Ithuliel. The angels fought with such ferocity, Castiel angered at what Ithuliel had done to his friend, and Ithuliel disgusted at his former comrade's feelings towards the humans.

The commander was able to throw Castiel off and addressed him with a finger pointed at Dean lying injured on the floor, "You were my brother! And now you fight for such a feeble creature as this! Castiel, you were our leader, we all looked up to you, then you left us to protect these abominations!"

Castiel looked upon Dean with sorrow filled eyes; the hunter was sprawled on the floor, whimpering in pain, blood pouring from his mouth, and the angel was angered. "No one does that to Dean and gets away alive," he growled, his crystal blue eyes alight with rage.

With one leap, Castiel had brought Ithuliel to his knees and stabbed his sword into his chest. Ithuliel gasped in surprise, and then sank to the floor, eyes glazed over.

Leaving the knife suck in the body, Castiel ran to Dean and cradled his head in his lap. Dean was unconscious, his chest rising and falling in quick, rapid bursts. He had to be healed, but Castiel was cut off from Heaven's power.

He could heal him, but it would require much of his strength and be quite painful for Dean. Sighing as he realized there was no other way, Cas took a deep breath and placed his hands on the hunter's chest.


	2. Chapter 2

As he willed Dean healed, Castiel's hands began to glow, and he felt the power leaving his body. Cas gasped in pain as the ritual made him and Dean one, which would then enable Castiel to give Dean some of his strength.

Dean woke up with a start as his bones began to slowly knit themselves back together, the air filled with a sickening crunching sound. He screamed as his body went through the unnatural healing process and he gripped Castiel's hand. Cas squeezed back, the wind knocked from his lungs as he felt Dean's pain as his own. Castiel cradled Dean to his chest as the hunter writhed and moaned, tears streaming from his emerald eyes.

As the ritual was completed, Dean was left sweaty and winded, his breath coming in gasps. But he was healed, not a scratch was left on his body. "Damn," he exclaimed, "That was by far the worst thing I have ever experienced in my life. And I have been ripped apart by hell hounds!"

"Sorry, I'm kind of rusty at this whole healing thing." Castiel used the wall to push himself up into a standing position, but his legs gave out and he slumped against Dean, blood dripping from his nose.

"Holy crap Cas! Are you okay?" Dean remarked as he helped the drained angel lean up against the wall.

"Better than I thought," grumbled Castiel as he wiped the blood from his face and stared at it with fascination. "I don't think I have ever seen my vessel bleed like this. It is quite perplexing. Only angelic weapons can do damage, but I guess now that I am cut off, I am becoming more vulnerable."

Shaking his head as if to clear something away, Castiel ran a hand through his hair then rubbed his chest. "I also believe that in healing you, I have taken on your injuries. This is quite odd." Shrugging off his trench coat, the angel unbuttoned his shirt and revealed his bare chest.

His lean, athletic figure was now covered in angry bruises and his rib cage looked like it had been beaten with a meat tenderizer. Blood was also starting to soak his pant leg, spreading like a blossoming flower.

Dean recoiled at the sight of his friend's mutilated chest. "Jesus, Cas we need to get you to a hospital!" Then he grew even more surprised as he saw the expression on the angel's face, "Doesn't that hurt?"

Castiel was too busy staring at his wounds with morbid interest to regard the first statement, but just shrugged when asked the second. "Of course it hurts, quite a lot actually. I am very sorry for letting you get hurt like this Dean. But angels have a larger pain threshold than humans. This should heal up in less than a day. The only thing that can seriously hurt us, are angelic weapons."

Dean shook his head in amazement then began to collect his sword from the body it was lodged in. "Well, I'm tired. So if you could just grab your angel knife and coat and zap us back to Bobby's, I would appreciate it."

While wiping the blood off of his knife, Dean heard Castiel grunt behind him. Turning to find what had happened, Dean yelled as he saw a not so dead Ithuliel with both hands on the angelic sword protruding from Castiel's chest. With an angry cry, Dean threw his knife at Ithuliel, hitting the angel in the center of the forehead, killing him.

Castiel sunk to the ground, his mouth opening and closing as he gasped for air like a fish out of water. Dean caught him before his head hit the floor and started to pull on the sword sticking out of his chest but stopped when the slightest movement of the lodged weapon drew a cry of agony from Castiel.

"Cas! Stay with me Cas! You have to get us out of here! Get us to Bobby's, now!" Dean's voice grew anxious as he stared into the bright blue eyes of the injured angel. They were slowly losing their light, closing little by little.

"No! Castiel, God dammit, you stay with me and you get us to Bobby's! I can fix you, I promise, just stay with me!" Dean's panicked tone brought Castiel enough strength to touch the center of Dean's forehead and teleport them to the house in South Dakota.


	3. Chapter 3

They landed with a fluttering thump in the kitchen and the commotion brought Sam and Bobby running in. At the sight of Castiel unconscious in Dean's arms, their eyes widened. Bobby ran to get a first aid kit, even if it didn't do much good on an angel.

"What happened?" exclaimed Sam, "Are you okay?"

Dean glared up at him from where he knelt with Castiel on the floor. "Does it look like we are okay?" Dean softened when he saw Sam grimace from the sharpness in his tone. "Sorry, I'm just worried. There was a powerful angel there, I got hurt and Cas had to heal me. When he was weakened, the bastard stabbed him. "

Both brothers looked at the angel lying in Dean's arms. Blood leaked from where the knife still protruded, and the wound was glowing from the angelic essence leaking from it. Sam knelt beside Dean and noticed Castiel's beat up chest. He had left his shirt and coat back at the warehouse, so his bare and bruised body was exposed.

"Gosh, he is pretty bad. How are we supposed to heal an angel?" Sam winced at the closer examination of the wound.

Bobby rushed in with a first aid kit, the bottle of holy oil and a book that looked older than civilization. Setting everything down on the kitchen floor, he kneeled in front of the injured angel.

"Aw crap. His essence is seeping from the wound. This is gonna be a close call boys." Bobby shook his head and removed his baseball cap. "All I know to do is what a couple of pages in this book tell me and I'm plumb out of sources."

He stopped talking when he noticed Dean's eyes growing wider and more desperate as his grip on Castiel tightened. "Well hold on boy. I ain't giving up on him anytime soon. We'll see what I can do."

With an uneasy sigh, Bobby grabbed hold of the knife and yanked it out of the unconscious angel with a grunt.

Castiel came awake with a scream, his eyes shooting open, and his whole body tensing against the pain. Gasping, he went limp in Dean's arms, his crystal blue eyes meeting the hunter's deep emerald ones and he forgot his pain for a moment, as he could see the worry and despair in Dean's eyes. Intertwining his fingers with the hunter's rough, calloused hands, he sighed and relaxed as Bobby read from the book.

"Okay, well it says here that you can use holy oil to seal an angel's wounds if the angel is unwilling to leave his vessel." Bobby, his face uncertain, closed the book.

"But I thought that holy oil was supposed to be one of the only things that could really _kill_ an angel." Sam lowered his voice as he spoke, glancing at his brother who was cradling the wounded angel protectively against his chest.

"Well, it kinda makes sense," Bobby responded, "Holy oil burns the angelic essence into the host, trapping it and then the fire just consumes the host with the angel still inside. If we want to keep Cas's essence from leaking out, this is the only thing that will do the job."

Bobby and Sam's eyes went to Dean, who looked up from smoothing Castiel's hair reassuringly with tears in his eyes. "I don't care what you do, just heal him." Dean's tear streaked face turned back to the angel who lay broken in his arms, "It's gonna be okay Cas. Bobby is going to fix you up, all right? Please don't leave me."

"Well here goes nothing." Bobby sighed as he tipped the vase of holy oil onto Castiel's bloodied abdomen.

Castiel's sapphire eyes flew open as he failed to choke back his scream of agony. The sickening sweet smell of the angel's burning flesh filled the room, and Sam and Bobby winced at the gruesome sizzling sound. Dean clenched Cas tighter to his chest and started to cry as the angel's screams died to feeble whimpers. As the glow around the now angry red wound faded, Castiel went limp and let his eyes flutter closed, his breathing slowing but still hitched.

Bobby and Sam edged back from the unlikely pair, both shocked at the sight of Dean's face buried in the angel's neck, sobbing quietly. Castiel was still, seemingly lifeless besides the rapid movement of his chest, arms curled up against the hunter's chest.

"Dean," Sam placed his hand lightly on his brother's shoulder, "Can you maybe, let go of him? We need to see if he is okay. I promise not to do anything; I just want to check, okay?" Gently lifting Dean's arms from around Castiel's body, Sam transferred the angel onto the floor in front of Bobby. As Bobby examined Cas, Sam embraced his still crying brother. He hadn't seen Dean this distraught since their dad died.

"I can lose him, Sammy." Dean whispered. "Not him. Heaven can take anyone else but him." With each word, his voice grew softer and thicker through his tears. The hunter's head shot up as Bobby lifted the unconscious angel, eliciting a quiet moan from as his wound was jostled. Dean shrugged his way out of Sam's arms and rushed to Bobby's side, lifting Castiel as gently as possible from under the arms as Bobby lifted his knees. The angel might not have looked heavy, but underneath the baggy trench coat, he was stocky and built like a track runner, making him way more heavy than expected.

The men carried him upstairs and placed him gently on the spare bed in the bedroom. They managed to keep from dropping him or bumping him so the angel still slept fitfully in their arms. Bobby left the room with one last look at Castiel and a pat to Dean's back. Dean arranged the pillow perfectly under his angel's head and sunk into a bedside chair, wiping the drying tears from his deep green eyes. "I won't leave you until you get better, Cas. I promise."


	4. Chapter 4

Castiel awoke with a small gasp, blue eyes flying open in panic that subsided only when their gaze fell on the sleeping Dean curled up in a chair next to him. The angel clenched his teeth as the dull ache in his side intensified and his muscled tightened. Uncomfortable, he tried to sit up but was stopped by a lightning bolt of agony that shot through his whole body and made him cry out involuntarily.

Dean jolted awake and fell out of his chair, scrambling back up to his feet to put a comforting hand on Castiel's shoulder. The hunter's beautiful emerald eyes were filled with worry as he felt Cas's body tense and shiver under his callused fingertips.

As the pain subsided, Castiel realized that the sheets had fallen around his waist and that the top half of his body was very much naked. With an awkward and completely peculiar blush, he hurriedly covered himself with the blankets. Dean slowly pulled the sheets out of his hands and placed them back down onto the bed, his gaze sweeping the angel's sculpted, athletically muscled body.

It was Dean's turn to blush and he quietly stammered that he was just checking on Castiel's wound. Cas, embarrassed at being so indecent, averted his eyes and nodded. His blush deepened as Dean's work-toughened hands peeled back the bandage and as his fingertips gingerly flitted just touching the angry red wound. Flinching a little bit more out of unexpected excitement than pain, Castiel cleared his throat softly and Dean replaced the bandage and stepped back.

"You seem to be healing up pretty well." Dean smiled bashfully; that was odd, Dean never lacked confidence, like, ever. "How do you feel?"

"Okay," Castiel's gruff voice sounded breathy, "It hurts, but with a little bit of rest, I will heal." Wincing, he carefully lowered himself back onto the pillow. He finally met Dean's eyes and was surprised to find them filled with tears.

"I thought I was going to lose you," the hunter's voice was thick and emotional, "I have never been so scared in my life, Cas." He laughed uneasily and wiped a tear away, "I mean, I literally cried. Gosh, I probably cried like a baby, but gosh darn it I have never felt like that." He knelt by the injured angel and gazed into his crystal blue eyes, brushing his raven black hair back from his pale, sweaty forehead.

Realizing that he was playing with Castiel's hair, Dean recoiled his hand as if he had just been burned. Castiel just looked sadly back at him, longing to feel his fingers on his forehead again. Taking a risk, the angel slowly lifted his hand to the hunter's handsome, freckled face, their warmth shared through their touch.

Wiping a tear from Dean's cheek, Castiel sighed, "What are we doing?" Dean lifted his own hand to place over Cas's on his cheek and chuckled, "I don't even know."

Castiel's eyes began to flutter with exhaustion and Dean replaced his arm under the covers, pulling them up to the angel's shoulders. As Castiel's eyes closed, he felt a soft kiss on his forehead; just a quick brush of lips on his feverish forehead that sent an unknown pulse of emotion tingling through his body.

"Cas, I think I love you. And i will always be by your side, just know that Cas. I will always stay with you. Now and forever, Castiel" Dean leaned back in his chair, sighing and closing his own eyes, keeping his post at his angel's side.


End file.
